ABSTRACT
Town Life.—In general, the development of town life in Scotland proceeded on similar lines to the parallel movement in England. Two peculiar features in Scottish municipal history, however, must be mentioned. One is the important difference in status and privileges between the towns on Crown land, the royal burghs, and towns on the estates of barons and churchmen, the burghs of barony or burghs of regality (so-called according to the nature of the estate on which they were situated: see p. 135, n. 1). Royal burghs alone were represented in Parliament. In Scotland, the feudal theory of Parliament as an assemblage of the king’s tenants-in-chief was rigidly maintained. Royal burghs were corporate vassals of the king and had a right to attend by proxy. Burghs of barony or of regality could only be represented in the court of their immediate overlord. In England, no such distinction was ever made in summoning burgess members to Parliament.
